Method and System for Controlling Media Conveyance by a Device to a User Based on Current Location of the Device

1. A method, comprising: respectively releasing, from a head end towards each of a plurality of receivers, an authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver, the authorized geographic region identifier comprising information regarding a respective geographic region within which the receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user of the receiver, wherein geographic regions in which different ones of the plurality of receivers are authorized to operate define coverage areas of different sizes; receiving an original media stream at the head end; generating, at the head end, a corrupted media signal by impairing one or both of a media signal comprising the original media stream, or the original media stream, with a removable artifact configured to be removed by respective receivers if a location of the respective receiver is within the authorized geographic region; and releasing, from the head end towards the plurality of receivers, the corrupted media signal, wherein the plurality of receivers are authorized to output the original media stream for conveyance to users of the receivers if a current location of a respective receiver corresponds to the respective geographic region indicated by the authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver, and wherein different ones of the plurality of receivers are authorized to output the original media stream independent of being associated with different authorized geographic region identifiers.

2. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein said geographic regions are inhabited, and wherein the coverage area defined by a first of said regions is related to the coverage area defined by a second of said regions inversely to the manner in which a population density of the first of said regions is related to a population density of the second of said regions.

3. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the information regarding each geographic region comprises at least one of a zip code and a postal code associated with said geographic region.

4. The method defined in claim 3 , wherein the at least one of the zip code and the postal code associated with each geographic region is equivalent to the zip code or postal code registered to a respective customer of the service provider.

5. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein each of the geographic regions is substantially circular and is defined by a respective unique center and corresponding radius.

6. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein for a particular receiver, said releasing comprises shipping the particular receiver to a particular customer of said service provider at a particular address within the geographic region within which the particular customer premises receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user of the particular receiver.

7. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein said particular address is within at least one of a particular zip code and a particular postal code and wherein the information regarding the geographic region within which the particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to the user of the particular receiver comprises at least one of said particular zip code and said particular postal code.

8. The method defined in claim 6 , further comprising embedding said information regarding the geographic region within which the particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to the user of the particular receiver in a memory of the particular receiver prior to said shipping.

9. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein for a particular receiver, said releasing comprises (i) embedding the information regarding the geographic region within which the particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user of the particular receiver in a peripheral device for insertion into the particular receiver and (ii) shipping the peripheral device to an address within the geographic region within which the particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to the user of the particular receiver.

10. The method defined in claim 9 , wherein the peripheral device comprises a smart card.

11. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the signal containing the media stream and the information regarding the geographic region within which each particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user are released over a satellite link.

12. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the information regarding the geographic region within which each particular receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user is incorporated into said media signal containing the media stream.

13. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the removable artifact is a removable digital artifact.

14. The method defined in claim 13 , wherein the removable digital artifact comprises a watermark.

15. The method defined in claim 13 , wherein the removable digital artifact comprises a warning message for display on a screen.

16. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the removable artifact is a removable analog artifact.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions for execution by a computing device at a head end, wherein execution of the set of instructions by the computing device causes the head end to execute a method comprising: respectively releasing, from the head end towards each of a plurality of receivers, an authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver, the authorized geographic region identifier comprising information regarding a respective geographic region within which the receiver is authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user of the receiver, wherein geographic regions in which different ones of the plurality of receivers are authorized to operate define coverage areas of different sizes; receiving an original media stream at the head end; generating, at the head end, a corrupted media signal by impairing one or both of a media signal comprising the original media stream, or the original media stream, with a removable artifact configured to be removed by respective receivers if a location of the respective receiver is within the authorized geographic region; and releasing, from the head end towards the plurality of receivers, the corrupted media signal, wherein the plurality of receivers are authorized to output the original media stream for conveyance to users of the receivers if a current location of a respective receiver corresponds to the respective geographic region indicated by the authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver, and wherein different ones of the plurality of receivers are authorized to output the original media stream independent of being associated with different authorized geographic region identifiers.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the authorized geographic region identifiers are encoded in an auxiliary media stream that accompanies the corrupted media signal, and wherein each of the respective authorized geographic location identifiers are associated with an address indicative of a particular receiver that the respective authorized geographic location identifier is associated with.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the authorized geographic region identifiers are provided to users of the respective receivers, and the users input the authorized geographic region identifiers into an input device coupled with the respective receivers.

20. A head end for distributing media to a plurality of receivers, comprising: a memory storing a plurality of receiver identifiers in association with respective authorized geographic region identifiers, the receiver identifiers identifying individual receivers, the authorized geographic region identifiers defining respective coverage areas of different sizes in which the respective receivers are authorized to output original media streams for conveyance to a user; and a processing entity configured to: consult said memory based on a particular one of the receiver identifiers in order to identify a particular one of said authorized geographic region identifiers that is associated with said particular one of the receiver identifiers; release toward a particular receiver identified by the particular one of the receiver identifiers the particular one of said authorized geographic region identifiers; receive an original media stream; generate a corrupted media signal by impairing one or both of a media signal comprising the original media stream, or the original media stream, with a removable artifact configured to be removed by the individual receivers if a location of a respective receiver is within the authorized geographic region indicated by the authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver; and release towards the individual receivers the corrupted media signal, wherein the individual receivers are authorized to output the original media stream for conveyance to users of the receivers if a current location of a respective receiver corresponds to the respective geographic region indicated by the authorized geographic region identifier associated with the respective receiver, and wherein different ones of the individual receivers are authorized to output the original media stream independent of being associated with different authorized geographic region identifiers.